5 friends took an overnight trip together to run the Afton trail races this year. I feel like the race itself wasn’t really the main event.
I started joining running clubs a bit over a year ago. I was pretty shy still, and liked the practice working on my social skills. I made mostly surface level conversations at first, the kinds of things people have scripted answers for without really thinking, but I was talking to people, and I was happy.
Coming into the winter, people started planning ahead for summer. And I was kinda surprised to get invited to travel to things together. Apparently the friendships had cultivated pretty well, and now we do stuff together.
Ashley planned out the hotels and stuff, she is good at that sort of thing. I was in the car with Peter and Riley. Normally Riley is very entertaining, but she was on a zoom call about the Essentai Nurses bargaining (Patients before profits!) which kept her occupied much of the time. I mostly talked to Peter, other than various updates from Riley telling us how the negotiations were going, and not hearing much of our replies due to headphones. She was talking to us half of the way though.
We started out a bit later than we thought. Met Riley’s parents for Italian food accross the street from the nacho place we were orignially going to eat. Her parents seemed genuinely very nice, it was a very pleasant meal.
We ended up taking a giant starcase just for fun. Long enough, that we decided to log it on strava.
After the Staircase, we only had a general idea where we were going. But I don’t think anyone wanted to do it again. While walking, Riley and Peter saw (and somehow I missed) someone with a disproportionately large butt compared to their body. And we theorized that if we all voted to agree, that regardless of what the members who weren’t there might think, we can probablty officially set the Mediocre Trail Runners official theme song to Baby Got Back -by Sir Mix A Lot
Singing Baby Got Back on the way to the hotel, we watched the fireworks in the distance for several cities in the area. I was told we were going to be in bed before the fireworks, but we were in bed shortly after.
The next morning, everyone was running on time. We even had time to get Starbucks on the way. Someone recognized me and called me by name, which made Riley jealous. She started talking to a stranger a few feet from me and Peter, and in a few minutes had convinced him to come up to her, pretending that we didn’t just see them having a long conversation, and greet her with “hey Riley!”
We got the the start with something like 8 minutes to spare, but probably could have rushed and had more time. We milled around for a handful of minutes after bib pick up.
The race started, and it was still wet from earlier rain. I was nervous about finishing, fighting a cold for the last week, never having done a long trail race before, and rain in the forecast. It started to pour, and the dirt and clay became slippery mud and slippery clay. Even slowing to much slower than walking speed I was struggling on the hills. It even kinda sucked on level ground. I was counting how many times I fell, but I lost track eventually. I didn’t get hurt, each time I fell I was going slow enough that I fell in place instead of falling and sliding which scrapes the legs.
I had started to talk myself out of it. I really lack mental toughness. I think of myself as a pretty good runner for someone who was in such really bad shape a few years ago. But I still don’t have that mindset so many of my friends do. I am hoping it rubs off on me eventually. I dropped out after 1 lap (out of 2 laps.) I probably could have done it physically, but it was pretty miserable.
I spent the next few hours hanging out with Brian and Ashley, talking, and watching them trade Pokemon. We had plenty of time, and no real hurry to be anywhere. Ashley and Brian both did the 25k, and did it in much less time than it took me to do the 25k I did. I think they did very well.
Once we thought they might be coming we waited near the finish line. The weather did not make it easy on anyone. Riley was the first of our group to finish the 50, and a while later Peter did to, so the whole group was back together. We still hung out for a while snacking at the end of the race and talking. The hanging out really was the funnest part, at least for me.
Brian and Ashley left in one car back to Duluth. Me, Riley, and Peter, went over to Riley’s parent’s to shower and play with dogs. Riley’s mother explained that the really well behaved dog was a therapy dog, and she seemed really proud of it. It was an awesome dog. I told them about the Going Banana’s 5k where everyone wears a banana suit and tries to outrun a person in a gorilla suit, they seemed to appreciate the humor. I didn’t shower, because I was going to shower at home anyway.
On the way, we stopped for ice cream. The conversation had a few subjects, they always do. The one we stayed on the longest was talking about color auras. Riley and Peter seemed interested in it for people that probably hadn’t heard about it before, or they were just humoring me to give us something to talk about.
I got home very tired. But that was expected. I really like the idea that the group is gathering in bunches and taking trips. Just the week before me, Ethan, and Nick, had gone down to the cities for Tough Mudder, and a few weeks before that went down to Bloomington to run FANS with Bryce and Crump. There is a good chance a few, or more, of us are going to Solon, WI, in a couple weeks for trail races down there. It’s fun to have stuff on the calender to look forward to. Even if plans change, like I am probably not doing the Curnow Marathon. But I still get to make plans with friends, and will probably continue doing so for years to come.
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